Behind the ropes with the new Graduate Conservators

Last year, a Graduate Conservator Programme was launched at Brighton & Hove Museums (B&HM). The programme aims to bridge a skills gap that exists in the training pathway for heritage conservators, whilst also improving the care of the museum’s collections.

With no current suitable apprenticeship pathway for conservators, or another affordable way of gaining the necessary practical experience for employment, B&HM are currently hosting two paid placements (for up to three years) within its Conservation Team for recent graduates. Dominic Oakes and I were fortunate to take up these placements and will be writing quarterly blogs to describe the projects we are working on and what we’ve learned.

Tessa and Dom cleaning Queen Victoria's Apartment in the Royal Pavilion

Tessa Corton

I graduated from Cardiff University in 2023 with a master’s in Conservation Practice MSc, a practical conversion course taught through critical thinking. Since graduating, I volunteered with the National Tramway Museum to gain experience in the challenges facing the heritage sector and in a broader range of objects.

I have previously worked on Iron Age ceramics, medieval stained glass, mid-20th century tramcars, and near enough everything in between. The B&HM collection is an exciting opportunity to broaden my experience, particularly with regency furniture and textiles.

Dom cleaning saloon curtains — Dom cleaning the Saloon curtains in the Royal Pavilion

Dominic Oakes

I graduated with a degree in Conservation of Cultural Heritage at the University of Lincoln in 2022. This provided me with a lot of theoretical knowledge and also practical experience of treating a variety of objects, including a taxidermy Gyrfalcon and Anglo-Saxon glass beads. Shortly after, I assisted the Technical Museum of East Iceland conserving a selection of their objects after a mudslide destroyed many buildings within the town, including half of the museum and their separate storage facilities, washing many objects into the fjord.

Before starting at B&HM I also volunteered with the Conservation team at the Cambridge University Museum of Zoology, cataloguing and condition assessing fossil fish as well as refilling spirit specimen crustaceans.

Many of my projects are prevention orientated and still within the planning phases. I am currently working out the logistics of decanting the contents of the attic at Hove Museum of Creativity to a temporary storage location. This will allow for preventive conservation principles to be incorporated into the redesign of this space. The overall impact will result in better access to the collection and making the stores easier to maintain. For example, altering shelving configuration to improve air flow will positively impact the environmental conditions, reducing the likelihood of mould. It also presents the opportunity to clean the items themselves –over 1800 items to move, clean, and return. This project is set to start in January.

Some of my projects are more of a personal challenge than others. Building on theorical knowledge I gained during my degree, another of my projects is associated with light sensitive objects on display. I have been given this project to build on this knowledge and support it with practical experience. This is still in the early planning stages and should be in place for Spring 2025.

I am currently in the early stages of two new projects, one of which is to polish and then lacquer a set of silver gilt tableware after researching suitable treatment options.

My main project I am currently leading is the cleaning of the Costume Store housed in Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, as well as any objects within the collection that require treatment. Whilst undertaking this I will be checking through the roughly 12,000 items in the collection for signs of damage, with a particular focus on mould. Further details on this project will be published in the future.

We agree that the most satisfying cleaning task so far has been the banqueting room table. This involved removing each setting in a particular order so they could be returned to the exact same location. Everything was then carefully dusted and the glasses polished whilst the tablecloth was gently vacuumed. Although the table didn’t look particularly dusty, the visual improvement was clear to see.

We’re both looking forward to carrying on with our projects, seeing how they progress, and taking on additional projects as they appear.